One thing that those who mean business with God will experience, is the work of the Holy Spirit in helping us to empty ourselves in order that Christ may be enlarged in us.
This will be His continual focus, as the Holy Spirit, as far as He relates to believers, lives to remove and weaken our self life in order that Christ may be formed in us. That is the end result of all that God has for us, and it's an enormous undertaking; one that will continue on into eternity.
What we must understand to cooperate with the Holy Spirit is there is nothing in us that He can work with. Nothing good dwells in the flesh, and the sooner we accept that, the sooner we and God can get on with His purpose for us.
No matter how good we may seem when compared to other human beings, no matter what we may consider as good intentions or clean living, all of it is unclean before the Lord, who is the only true light.
In other words, from our fallen nature we have absolutely nothing to offer God but our hearts. That's it. Even there our hearts can be deceptive, and we can't trust anything about ourselves as it relates to God.
If we will embrace the work of the cross within us, we will find that God will have a place to do the work of conforming us to the image of Jesus Christ. If not, He will continue to work and wait until we're ready to surrender all to Him. Saying we are ready to surrender, or singing we're ready to surrender all, doesn't mean we are in fact surrendering all.
The Holy Spirit is perfect in being able to reveal that by putting us through difficulties. It is in the hard times of life that we find out where we are really at. There is where God can do some work if we're willing to abide in Him while we go through our struggles.
Many Christians unnecessarily harden their hearts or are clueless as to the ways of God as they relate to finding a place to build Christ within the believer. If we are willing to see, we will discover and understand that it is in the struggles of life that the Holy Spirit finds a place in us to do His work.
Embracing that reality won't make it any easier, but it will work out the peaceable fruit of righteousness, where we can graciously be quiet and restful within even if our outer world seems to be falling apart.
All of it is for the glory of God in that we continually grow more and more like Jesus. The key is self-emptying, and the Holy Spirit is able to help you in that if you open your heart to Him.
Showing posts with label Christ in You. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christ in You. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 1, 2014
Thursday, March 14, 2013
There was a time in the far past when God called Israel his firstborn. The implications of that are staggering in that it has a relationship and similarity to when Jesus was recognized as the only begotten Son of the Father. Now there is a difference of course, but the identification of Israel as His firstborn has the same love and relationship attached to it.
That is extremely important because what is called Christianity, overall, has went the way of officialdom and formality, rather than a close love relationship with Christ Himself.
God stands by His people on the basis of this intimacy. Once it turns outward, as it does with the majority of those that name Christ, God can no longer give Himself to them that say they take His name.
Let's back up a moment though and understand that this intimacy is recognizable by those that keep the commandments of Christ. Jesus Himself said if you love me, keep my commandments. So intimacy and passion for Christ will always lead to becoming like Him, which is really what it means to obey His commandments.
After all, how many people outwardly adhere to the commandments of Christ and yet inwardly are full of sin and corruption? They are legion, as anyone that has the power of observation and interacts with those proclaiming Christ know.
The first letter of John confirms this, saying those that are true believers will walk as He walked. How did He walk? He had the sole goal of communing with and doing the will of the Father. By extension, that means we are not to walk in a sin-filled life, but one that is full love, joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. That's part of what it means to be filled with the spirit. It's being intoxicated with God in a way that who He is in character begins to take shape within us. That's obeying His commandments. After all, the commands of God are always to lead us to Christ Himself, who comes to abide in us and transforms us into His image.
This can only be done inwardly in fellowship with Christ. It's an experience; not simply trying hard to adhere to the letter of the law or scriptures, which inevitably always leads to failure and frustration.
If we want to count for something in Christ while living in this world, this is the only way to go. Christ, while God, is still a living being, and His purpose for creating us was so we could spend our lives in fellowship with Him and one another. This fellowship with Christ is intimate and within, working its way out to others who bear the life of Christ within them as well. That is the fellowship we are to have with one another.
Everything we are is related to being practical sons of God. Being sons of God means we are to know Him within. There is nothing more intimate in regard to man than that experiential reality. Even the one-ness between a husband and wife pales before it.
As for the outworking of that? Whatever it is God would have us to do, He will be there with us as long as we aren't official or outward Christians, but are of the tribe that seeks to live a life centered in Him. That center resides in our innermost beings, and is something that must be cultivated on a daily basis.
This is what Jesus was talking about when referring to the different types of ground the word, or really Himself, is planted into. The ground is the key because the seed that is Christ is perfect. Our job is to open ourselves up to being good ground so the seed can take root and grow. The ground and the seed can only be one under those circumstances.
There is nothing we can't do when retaining and remaining in that place of openness to Christ no matter what life brings us. This is why Paul taught us to admonish one another daily so a root of bitterness wouldn't spring up.
We need to watch over and challenge one another not to allow ourselves to become hardened within, as there would then be no way for the perfect seed of Christ to be close in a way that transforms us into what He is like.
Ultimately this is what produces the outward form of religion, which looks holy outwardly, but inwardly is dry and dead to Christ. We are called to something much higher than that, and it all begins and really ends, with Christ dwelling in our innermost being by the Spirit.
This is why we are told that it is Christ in us which is the hope of glory.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
How does one talk about an infinite being that has no beginning or end; that has no limitations or shortcomings; whom is pure love as it can only be; and from that love spoke and designed a world into existence; to not only be a place where He would be welcomed and dwell, but planned to do it via the human race which He created in His own image?
The end and completion of that purpose and creation was to have a people who embraced His character spread out across the earth and fill it with His very glory. It wasn't simply a general presence or impersonal goal God the Father had in Jesus Christ and His brethren, but it was a very personal indwelling where the Spirit of God was to take up passionate and intimate relationship in man, which would have been accomplished immediately after the first creation when Adam and Eve had eaten from the Tree of Life - Jesus Christ. Instead they chose to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which temporarily set back the purpose of God He had in creating the earth.
None of this changed the secret purpose hidden in God from before the foundation of the earth, and mankind had to wait for the coming of the Savior and Lord Jesus Christ before seeing what type of humanity God desired, expected and commanded to be, while at the same time seeing how that would impact and change the human race.
Fascinatingly, God didn't really change the human race in the sense of making it better, as the old race wasn't able to be healed in any manner. Rather what He did in Christ was to kill it completely, and through faith in the resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus Christ, He brought forth or birthed a new creation that was really what He had planned from eternity. If Adam had eaten of the Tree of Life with Eve, this event would have taken place almost from the beginning, and the eternal purpose of God would have expanded and grown from that moment in time. In other words, not long after the first Adam was created, His eating of the Tree of Life would have brought forth the Second Adam or mankind, and it would have been done without the emergence of sin.
As it happened, the wages of sin is death, and so the old man had to be killed off in order for Jesus Christ to take His place as the new humanity that was born and is being built into His people that place their trust in Him. Even if Adam hadn't sinned, I think His eating of Christ would have been an act which would have brought Him to being a spirit man rather than the living soul that he was created as. It would have been a form of death rather than death coming from sin; a death to self, which obviously Satan had no desire to see happen, as it would have probably ended the fallen angel long ago.
The great secret hidden from eternity is that God wanted to intimately dwell within a people, whom would be an exact representation of who and what He was and is. Satan's greatest goal is to work against that happening in a people committed to Jesus Christ and one another.
Remember, the presence of God is a living presence - a life. Not only that, but it's a life that brings the very life of God in it, which demands that those receiving it are transformed into who He is as a man (not His divinity, which is His alone).
This is why the scriptures say this in Colossians 1:
24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. 25 Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, 26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, 27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. 29 For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me. (NASB)
Christ in you! That's the amazing mystery hidden from all mankind, including the Jews, who even to this day, for the vast majority of them, still are blinded concerning this reality.
But we must go far beyond this as simply some type of teaching, as it demands, as it always has on the part of God, that His people welcome and embrace His indwelling presence. This goes beyond the idea of being born again or born from above when we're first saved. It means that from that embryonic birth, we're on a lifelong and eternal journey with God; one that is passionate, intimate, and has as the overall purpose that in our love relationship together the gap between who He is and we are shrinks, and that will be expressed in our attitude and relationship with God Himself, as well as with those who are on the journey together with us.
All of this is to say that it is impossible for the institutional church and its narrow and outward focus to participate in this reality in any way that was in the heart of Jesus Christ.
Read again the Holy Scriptures and see that all the dealings of God came forth for a relationship with Him, or an abandonment of that relationship. There was no middle ground from the point of view of God. Even Jesus said He would rather have people hot or cold, rather than somewhere holding the middle ground which makes Christ sick to His stomach (He'll spew them out of His mouth) concerning those walking in that manner.
Jesus walked in living relationship and fellowship with those who were called to be foundations of the church, as He did with the patriarchs of old. As Solomon said, the house he built for God had no way of holding Him when the created universe couldn't even hold Him.
The point being it's ludicrous and ridiculous how the man-made religious system that most people consider to be the revelation of what God wants in a people, is in fact working against that very purpose, which the writer of Hebrews revealed concerning the outward religion of the Jews as being vastly inferior to the life-giving revelation of Jesus Christ. Strangely, Christians have embraced an outward system that God has revealed does nothing to satisfy His heart or work towards His ultimate vision and goal, and have even persecuted and violently opposed those that hold to the living Christ without the props of institutional religious Christianity to hold it together.
According to the Holy Spirit, He is going to shake all things in heaven and earth, and the result will be only that which is of Christ will remain. Paul noted a similar truth in regard to those who are planting seeds in the lives of others, in that there will be those that build with inferior material, which will result in death for the hearers, and only they themselves will be saved. A horrific and terrible testimony of those refusing to embrace the living Christ in a way that stands with Him outside the camp, willing to bear His reproach with Him.
(Hebrews 13:13)
Even when weak believers embraced the disaster of Constantine in the 4th Century AD, there were those that understood this wasn't the will of God for His people, to institutionalize and build things that took on the bizarre name and designation of Church. It wasn't long afterwards that the unbiblical concept of clergy became an official belief, and the embracing of the Roman Empire as a model for the practices of the people of God the way that it was lived - if you could call it living.
All that has done is left people attending a building with a person in the front spewing pathetic "sermons" which is now considered to be taken right from the Bible, even though they are nowhere to be found.
Jesus is alive and living, and He desires to intimately dwell in a people. That is something that brings about a daily interaction between God and His people, and based upon that fellowship, daily interaction in Christ with one another. At least that's what is desired and wanted, and a growing number are learning and taking the steps to make that a reality in their lives with one another.
Most of the readers who frequent this blog know that and probably wonder why it's being brought up again. The answer is I believe God is taking us to a new level in this life in Christ together, and we'll need to more than ever before commit to one another in Christ on a daily and/or consistent basis. Those not willing to take these steps will find it more and more difficult to make it as the world continues to fall apart at the seams beyond what it has even in the past.
We need to and must be part of one another's lives. Not in some place where you attend some unbiblical practice every Sunday morning, but rather participating in the "one to another" that is expressed and alluded to throughout the entirety of the New Testament revelation. It's also expressed in the Old Testament, but it's not as easy to see because it speaks in types and shadows of what became real in Jesus Christ and His people.
I believe in the days ahead there will be a growing need for the people of God to have a revelation of the organic life of Christ and how He expresses Himself in a people concerning spiritual and practical things.
The attempt by governments, central banks, and so-called Christians who enable and support them, to become everybody's daddy and provider; attempting to take the place of God Himself in their lives, will only grow worse, and the promises already have gone beyond the point of sustainability, and eventually it'll implode, leaving those without a real spiritual family alone to deal with the fallout on their own.
This is a word that goes beyond the revelation of this being what God wants as part of His eternal purpose in that we are facing circumstances in life that demand we take these steps if we want to survive the shaking that is coming upon us in the not-to-distant future.
What I mean by that is the eternal purpose of God has always been and will always be. Now it must be embraced and obeyed and responded to as it never has in the past by God's people, because they will not be immune to the following destruction if they are alone when it comes. And if all that is going on is God's people are attending a building with no true, daily fellowship and interaction, they will not be able to help and aid one another as they should, even if it enters into their hearts to do so. Most will be thinking natural and not spiritual family, and for many that think they'll be helped by those in the faith, there will be a rude awakening.
After all, if it's not happening in regular times, how can it happen and be taken care of when real difficult times come. You can't just turn on a dime and suddenly be ready for all of this.
But even if none of this were to happen, this is the way of life that God expects, desires and wants for us, and in that sense, must be received and lived no matter what the circumstances surrounding us are.
The bottom line is we must find one another in Christ, abandon the shoddy, shallow religious Christianity that now dominates the world, and live a life together that is worthy of the Lord that died for us.
To do that we must die to ourselves and our desires, and ask God to show us the kind of love it will take to bring this about. Only He can do it, but we must be aware of the eternal nature of this calling, as well as recognize the dangerous times we live in where this could be the only way we survive what is coming upon the earth.
This will require closer living together, commitment to each other daily, being open and flexible, and a sincere love of Christ and the brethren. Anything less than that will result in failure.
We all need to get a greater sense of urgency with what is happening in the earth today. God has given us the very provision we need in His Son and the sharing of His life together daily. That's organic, living fellowship; one that is immensely practical in love and taking care of one another.
And if you're reading this 100 years from now, the principles of what we're talking about will never change, as they're based upon the very heart of God before He ever created man. After all, disasters and difficult times will always come and go on this earth, and outside of holding to Christ and one another, there is nothing else that we can count on until Jesus Christ ends His short work on this earth and all enemies are put under His feet.
For now though, we see Christ, or at least should, and we must start making it our ultimate purpose on this earth to live out the fellowship we have with Him towards and with one another. That will require boldness and a pioneering spirit which forsakes everything in order to satisfy the heart of God in Christ Jesus.
Outward, institutional religion won't help, and it's more of a hindrance than anything else. We must become radical with this, allowing Jesus Christ to reveal to us what it is He wants us to do in response to it. Start to pray and prepare now, as the time is coming when it'll be too late for those not heeding His call in this generation and time we live in.
The end and completion of that purpose and creation was to have a people who embraced His character spread out across the earth and fill it with His very glory. It wasn't simply a general presence or impersonal goal God the Father had in Jesus Christ and His brethren, but it was a very personal indwelling where the Spirit of God was to take up passionate and intimate relationship in man, which would have been accomplished immediately after the first creation when Adam and Eve had eaten from the Tree of Life - Jesus Christ. Instead they chose to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, which temporarily set back the purpose of God He had in creating the earth.
None of this changed the secret purpose hidden in God from before the foundation of the earth, and mankind had to wait for the coming of the Savior and Lord Jesus Christ before seeing what type of humanity God desired, expected and commanded to be, while at the same time seeing how that would impact and change the human race.
Fascinatingly, God didn't really change the human race in the sense of making it better, as the old race wasn't able to be healed in any manner. Rather what He did in Christ was to kill it completely, and through faith in the resurrected and ascended Lord Jesus Christ, He brought forth or birthed a new creation that was really what He had planned from eternity. If Adam had eaten of the Tree of Life with Eve, this event would have taken place almost from the beginning, and the eternal purpose of God would have expanded and grown from that moment in time. In other words, not long after the first Adam was created, His eating of the Tree of Life would have brought forth the Second Adam or mankind, and it would have been done without the emergence of sin.
As it happened, the wages of sin is death, and so the old man had to be killed off in order for Jesus Christ to take His place as the new humanity that was born and is being built into His people that place their trust in Him. Even if Adam hadn't sinned, I think His eating of Christ would have been an act which would have brought Him to being a spirit man rather than the living soul that he was created as. It would have been a form of death rather than death coming from sin; a death to self, which obviously Satan had no desire to see happen, as it would have probably ended the fallen angel long ago.
The great secret hidden from eternity is that God wanted to intimately dwell within a people, whom would be an exact representation of who and what He was and is. Satan's greatest goal is to work against that happening in a people committed to Jesus Christ and one another.
Remember, the presence of God is a living presence - a life. Not only that, but it's a life that brings the very life of God in it, which demands that those receiving it are transformed into who He is as a man (not His divinity, which is His alone).
This is why the scriptures say this in Colossians 1:
24 Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I do my share on behalf of His body, which is the church, in filling up what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions. 25 Of this church I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, 26 that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, 27 to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. 28 We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. 29 For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me. (NASB)
Christ in you! That's the amazing mystery hidden from all mankind, including the Jews, who even to this day, for the vast majority of them, still are blinded concerning this reality.
But we must go far beyond this as simply some type of teaching, as it demands, as it always has on the part of God, that His people welcome and embrace His indwelling presence. This goes beyond the idea of being born again or born from above when we're first saved. It means that from that embryonic birth, we're on a lifelong and eternal journey with God; one that is passionate, intimate, and has as the overall purpose that in our love relationship together the gap between who He is and we are shrinks, and that will be expressed in our attitude and relationship with God Himself, as well as with those who are on the journey together with us.
All of this is to say that it is impossible for the institutional church and its narrow and outward focus to participate in this reality in any way that was in the heart of Jesus Christ.
Read again the Holy Scriptures and see that all the dealings of God came forth for a relationship with Him, or an abandonment of that relationship. There was no middle ground from the point of view of God. Even Jesus said He would rather have people hot or cold, rather than somewhere holding the middle ground which makes Christ sick to His stomach (He'll spew them out of His mouth) concerning those walking in that manner.
Jesus walked in living relationship and fellowship with those who were called to be foundations of the church, as He did with the patriarchs of old. As Solomon said, the house he built for God had no way of holding Him when the created universe couldn't even hold Him.
The point being it's ludicrous and ridiculous how the man-made religious system that most people consider to be the revelation of what God wants in a people, is in fact working against that very purpose, which the writer of Hebrews revealed concerning the outward religion of the Jews as being vastly inferior to the life-giving revelation of Jesus Christ. Strangely, Christians have embraced an outward system that God has revealed does nothing to satisfy His heart or work towards His ultimate vision and goal, and have even persecuted and violently opposed those that hold to the living Christ without the props of institutional religious Christianity to hold it together.
According to the Holy Spirit, He is going to shake all things in heaven and earth, and the result will be only that which is of Christ will remain. Paul noted a similar truth in regard to those who are planting seeds in the lives of others, in that there will be those that build with inferior material, which will result in death for the hearers, and only they themselves will be saved. A horrific and terrible testimony of those refusing to embrace the living Christ in a way that stands with Him outside the camp, willing to bear His reproach with Him.
(Hebrews 13:13)
Even when weak believers embraced the disaster of Constantine in the 4th Century AD, there were those that understood this wasn't the will of God for His people, to institutionalize and build things that took on the bizarre name and designation of Church. It wasn't long afterwards that the unbiblical concept of clergy became an official belief, and the embracing of the Roman Empire as a model for the practices of the people of God the way that it was lived - if you could call it living.
All that has done is left people attending a building with a person in the front spewing pathetic "sermons" which is now considered to be taken right from the Bible, even though they are nowhere to be found.
Jesus is alive and living, and He desires to intimately dwell in a people. That is something that brings about a daily interaction between God and His people, and based upon that fellowship, daily interaction in Christ with one another. At least that's what is desired and wanted, and a growing number are learning and taking the steps to make that a reality in their lives with one another.
Most of the readers who frequent this blog know that and probably wonder why it's being brought up again. The answer is I believe God is taking us to a new level in this life in Christ together, and we'll need to more than ever before commit to one another in Christ on a daily and/or consistent basis. Those not willing to take these steps will find it more and more difficult to make it as the world continues to fall apart at the seams beyond what it has even in the past.
We need to and must be part of one another's lives. Not in some place where you attend some unbiblical practice every Sunday morning, but rather participating in the "one to another" that is expressed and alluded to throughout the entirety of the New Testament revelation. It's also expressed in the Old Testament, but it's not as easy to see because it speaks in types and shadows of what became real in Jesus Christ and His people.
I believe in the days ahead there will be a growing need for the people of God to have a revelation of the organic life of Christ and how He expresses Himself in a people concerning spiritual and practical things.
The attempt by governments, central banks, and so-called Christians who enable and support them, to become everybody's daddy and provider; attempting to take the place of God Himself in their lives, will only grow worse, and the promises already have gone beyond the point of sustainability, and eventually it'll implode, leaving those without a real spiritual family alone to deal with the fallout on their own.
This is a word that goes beyond the revelation of this being what God wants as part of His eternal purpose in that we are facing circumstances in life that demand we take these steps if we want to survive the shaking that is coming upon us in the not-to-distant future.
What I mean by that is the eternal purpose of God has always been and will always be. Now it must be embraced and obeyed and responded to as it never has in the past by God's people, because they will not be immune to the following destruction if they are alone when it comes. And if all that is going on is God's people are attending a building with no true, daily fellowship and interaction, they will not be able to help and aid one another as they should, even if it enters into their hearts to do so. Most will be thinking natural and not spiritual family, and for many that think they'll be helped by those in the faith, there will be a rude awakening.
After all, if it's not happening in regular times, how can it happen and be taken care of when real difficult times come. You can't just turn on a dime and suddenly be ready for all of this.
But even if none of this were to happen, this is the way of life that God expects, desires and wants for us, and in that sense, must be received and lived no matter what the circumstances surrounding us are.
The bottom line is we must find one another in Christ, abandon the shoddy, shallow religious Christianity that now dominates the world, and live a life together that is worthy of the Lord that died for us.
To do that we must die to ourselves and our desires, and ask God to show us the kind of love it will take to bring this about. Only He can do it, but we must be aware of the eternal nature of this calling, as well as recognize the dangerous times we live in where this could be the only way we survive what is coming upon the earth.
This will require closer living together, commitment to each other daily, being open and flexible, and a sincere love of Christ and the brethren. Anything less than that will result in failure.
We all need to get a greater sense of urgency with what is happening in the earth today. God has given us the very provision we need in His Son and the sharing of His life together daily. That's organic, living fellowship; one that is immensely practical in love and taking care of one another.
And if you're reading this 100 years from now, the principles of what we're talking about will never change, as they're based upon the very heart of God before He ever created man. After all, disasters and difficult times will always come and go on this earth, and outside of holding to Christ and one another, there is nothing else that we can count on until Jesus Christ ends His short work on this earth and all enemies are put under His feet.
For now though, we see Christ, or at least should, and we must start making it our ultimate purpose on this earth to live out the fellowship we have with Him towards and with one another. That will require boldness and a pioneering spirit which forsakes everything in order to satisfy the heart of God in Christ Jesus.
Outward, institutional religion won't help, and it's more of a hindrance than anything else. We must become radical with this, allowing Jesus Christ to reveal to us what it is He wants us to do in response to it. Start to pray and prepare now, as the time is coming when it'll be too late for those not heeding His call in this generation and time we live in.
Sunday, March 21, 2010
From 'A Witness and a Testimony'
January - February, 1970 Vol. 48, No. 1
REVELATION IS NOT ENOUGH
[A. W. Tozer]
The following message by the late Dr. A. W. Tozer, to be included in a further volume of addresses by him now in preparation, is, we feel, so much in keeping with the ministry of A Witness and A Testimony, that we borrow it for our readers, assured that they will be very glad to read it. It was recently in The Alliance Witness of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. And while mentioning this, may I say that, in early years of ministry and the Lord's work, I owed very much to the life of Dr. A. B. Simpson, founder of that 'Alliance'. - Editor.
"About the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself" (John 7:14-17).
---------------- Begin Article -------------------
THE key, the crux of this whole issue, is in verse 17. If any man is willing to do God's will, he shall know.
People marvelled at our Lord as He taught. They asked: "How knoweth this man letters having never learned?" 'How does He know learning', in other words, 'never having studied in the regular schools?' In those days they had no schools as we know them; a rabbi taught little groups of students. Our Lord evidently never attended a rabbinical school so they asked: 'How does He get His wonderful doctrine, since He has never been to the schools of the rabbis?'
Now, this question tells us a good deal about these people. It tells us that they held truth to be intellectual merely, capable of being reduced to a code. To know truth it was necessary only to learn the code.
Most of them had no books of their own -- they learned by memorizing. That was their conception of truth. I gather this not only from verse 17 but from the whole Gospel of John. To these people truth was an intellectual thing -- just as we know that two times two is four.
That is truth, but it is an intellectual truth only. They reduced divine truth to that status. They knew the laws: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me.... Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.... Thou shalt not ...". But to them there was no mysterious depth in truth, nothing beneath and nothing beyond the obvious fact. It was exactly here that they parted company with our Saviour, for our Lord Jesus constantly taught the beyond and the beneath.
These people believed that the words of truth were the truth. And here is a basic misunderstanding of Christian theology with a moral and spiritual consequence that is vastly important. They believed that if you had the words of truth, if you could repeat the code of truth, you had the truth. That if you lived by the word of truth you lived in the truth.
The Saviour tried to correct this inadequate view. He showed them the heavenly quality of His message. He said: 'My doctrine is not Mine -- I am [18/19] not a rabbi teaching doctrine that you can memorize and repeat. What I am giving you is not that kind of doctrine at all.'
He had said previously: 'I say nothing for Myself -- what I see the Father do, that I do, and what the Father speaks, that I speak. What I have seen yonder I tell you about. I am a transparent medium through which the truth is being spoken. You believe that the way to truth is to go to a rabbi and learn it. That's not the truth, that approach to truth is inadequate.'
Here, it seems to me, is the weakness in modern Christianity. The battle line, the warfare today, is not necessarily between the fundamentalist and the liberal. There is a difference between them, of course. The fundamentalist says God made the heaven and the earth. The liberal says: 'Well, that's a poetic way of stating it; actually it came up by evolution.' The fundamentalist says Jesus Christ was the very Son of God. The liberal says: 'Well, He certainly was a wonderful man and He is the Master, but I don't quite know about His deity.' So there is a division, but I don't think the warfare is on these matters any more.
The battle has shifted to another more important field. The warfare, the dividing line today, is between evangelical rationalists and evangelical mystics. I will explain what I mean.
There is today an evangelical rationalism which is the same as these Jews had. They said the truth is in the word, and if you want to know truth, go to the rabbi and learn the word. If you get the word, you have got the truth. That is evangelical rationalism and we have that today in fundamental circles. 'If you learn the text you've got the truth.'
This evangelical rationalism will kill the truth just as quickly as liberalism will, though in more subtle way. The liberal stands over there and says: 'I don't believe your inspired Bible; I don't believe your deified Christ. I believe the Bibles in a way; it is the record of the high points of great men and I believe in a certain mystic communion with the universe and it is all very wonderful, but I don't believe as you do.'
You can easily spot this man -- train your glasses on him and there he stands. You can tell he is on the other side, for he wears the uniform of the other side.
But your evangelical rationalist wears our uniform. He comes in wearing our uniform and says what the Pharisees, the worst enemies Jesus had while He was on earth, said: 'Well, truth is truth, and if you believe the truth you've got it.
Such see no beyond and no mystic depth, no mysterious heights, nothing supernatural or divine. They see only: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: and in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord." They have the text and the code and the creed, and to them that is the truth. So they pass it on to others. The result is we are dying spiritually.
Now, what about the evangelical mystic? I don't really like the word 'mystic' because you think of a fellow with long hair and a little goatee who acts dreamy and strange. Maybe it is not a good word at all, but I am talking about the spiritual side of things -- that the truth is more than the text. There is something that you've got to get through to. The truth is more than the code. There is a heart beating in the middle of the code and you've got to get there.
Now the question is simply this: Is the body of Christian truth enough? Or does truth have a soul as well as a body? The evangelical rationalist says that all of that talk about the soul of truth is poetic nonsense. The body of truth is all you need; if you believe the body of truth you are on your way to heaven and you can't backslide and everything will be allright and you will get a crown in the last day.
Now otherwise stated: Is revelation enough or must there be illumination? Is this Bible an inspired book? Is it a revealed book? Of course you and I believe that it is a revelation, that God spoke all these words and holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
I believe that this Bible is a living book, that God has given it to us and that we dare not add to it or take away from it. It is revelation. But revelation is not enough. There must be illumination before revelation can get to your soul. It isn't enough that I hold an inspired book in my hands. I must have an inspired heart. There is the difference.
You can memorize all the texts of the Bible -- and I believe in memorizing -- but when you are through you've got nothing but the body. There is the soul of truth as well as the body. There is a divine inward illumination the Holy Ghost must give us or we don't know what truth means.
Conversion is a miraculous act of God by the Holy Ghost; it must be wrought in the spirit. The body of truth is not enough; there must be an inward illumination.
Christ's conflict was with the theological rationalist. It revealed itself in the Sermon on the Mount and the whole Book of John. Just as Colossians argues against Manichaeism and Galatians argues against Jewish legalism, so the Book of John is a long, inspired, passionately outpoured book trying to save us from evangelical rationalism, the doctrine [19/20] that says the text is enough. Textualism is as deadly as liberalism.
Now revelation, I repeat, can't save. Revelation is the ground upon which we stand. Revelation tells us what to believe. It is the Book of God and I stand for it with all my heart; but there must be, before I can be saved, illumination, penitence, renewal, inward deliverance.
I have no doubt that many people are eased into the kingdom. They are jockeyed into believing in the text, and they do; but they have never been illuminated by the Holy Ghost. They have never been renewed in their hearts. They never get into the kingdom at all.
Now, there is a secret in divine truth altogether hidden from the unprepared soul. This is where we stand in the terrible day in which we live. Christianity is not something you just reach up and grab. There must be a preparation of the mind, a preparation of the life and a preparation of the inner man before we can savingly believe in Jesus Christ.
Somebody asks: Is it possible to hear the truth and not understand the truth? Listen to Isaiah: "Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive not" (6:9). It is possible to see yet not perceive.
Paul says (1 Corinthians 2:4-5): "My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."
Now the theological rationalists say that your faith should stand not in the wisdom of man but in the Word of God. Paul didn't say that at all. He said your faith should stand in the power of God. That's quite a different thing.
Verses 9 through 14 say: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.... But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
Paul, the man of God, is saying: I came preaching and I preached with power that would illuminate and get to the conscience and to the spirit and change the inner man in order that your faith might stand in the power of God.
My brethren, your faith can stand in the text and you can be as dead as the proverbial doornail, but when the power of God moves in on the text and sets the sacrifice on fire, then you have Christianity. We call that revival, but it's not revival at all. It is simply New Testament Christianity. It's what it ought to have been in the first place, but was not.
Now look at Matthew 11: "Jesus answered and said, I thank thee O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him."
So there we have the doctrine taught plainly that there is not only a body of truth which we must hold at our peril; there is also a soul in that body which we must get through to, and if we don't get through to the soul of truth we have only a dead body on our hands.
A church can go on holding the creed. and the truth for years and generations and grow old and die, and new people come up and receive that same code and they grow old and die.
Then some revivalist comes in and gets everybody stirred and prayer moves God down on the scene and revival comes to that church. People who thought they were saved get saved. People who have only believed in a code now believe in Christ.
A man will go along in a church and believe texts and quote them and memorize them and teach them and maybe become a deacon and all the rest. Then one day, under the fiery preaching of some visitor or maybe the pastor, he suddenly feels himself terribly in need of God and he forgets all his past history and goes to his knees and like David begins to pour out his soul in confession. Then he leaps to his feet and testifies: 'I've been a deacon in this church twenty-six years and never was born again until tonight.'
What happened? That man had been trusting the dead body of truth until some inspired preacher let him know that truth has a soul. Or maybe God taught him in secret that truth had a soul as well as a body and he dared to get through and pursue by penitence and obedience until God honoured his faith and flashed the light on. And like lightning out of heaven it touched his spirit and all the texts he had memorized became alive.
Thank God, he did memorize the texts and all the truth he knew suddenly now bloomed in the light. That is why I believe we ought to memorize. [20/21] That is why we ought to get to know the Word, why we ought to fill our minds with the songs and the great hymns of the church. They won't mean anything to us until the Holy Ghost comes. But when He comes He will have fuel to use. Fire without fuel won't burn but fuel without fire is dead. And the Holy Ghost will not come on a church where there is no Biblical fuel. There must be Bible teaching. We must have the body of truth.
Jesus said if any man is willing to do God's will, he shall know -- he shall know the doctrine, he shall know the teaching. Now, this body of truth can be grasped by the average, normal intellect. You can grasp truth, but only the enlightened soul will ever know the truth and only the prepared heart will ever be enlightened.
And just what is the preparation needed? Jesus said: 'If any man is willing to do My will the light will flash in on him. If any man will obey Me, God will enlighten his soul immediately.'
We make Jesus Christ a convenience. We make Him a lifeboat to get us to shore, a guide to find us when we are lost. We reduce Him simply to Big Friend to help us when we are in trouble.
That is not Christianity. Jesus Christ is Lord. But when a man is willing to do His will, he is repenting and the truth flashes in.
No man can know the Son except the Father tell him. No man can know the Father except the Son reveal Him. I can know about God, that's the body of truth. But I can't know God, the soul of truth, unless I am ready to be obedient.
Before the Word of God can mean anything inside of me there must be obedience to the Word. Truth will not give itself to a rebel. Truth will not impart life to a man who will not obey the light! "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." If you are disobeying Jesus Christ you can't expect to be enlightened.
But there is illumination. I know what Charles Wesley meant when he wrote: "His spirit answers to the blood, And tells me I am born of God!" Nobody had to come and tell me what he meant. 'He that is willing to do My will,' said Jesus, 'shall have a revelation to his own heart. He shall have an inward illumination that tells him he is a child of God.'
If a sinner goes to the altar and a worker with a marked New Testament argues him into the kingdom, the devil will meet him two blocks down the street and argue him out of it again. But if he has an inward illumination and he has that witness within because the Spirit answers to the blood, you can't argue with that man. He will say: 'But I know.' A man like that is not bigoted or arrogant, he is just sure.
Now that's revival, but yet it is not revival either; it is normal Christianity. It's the way we should be. "If any man will do his will, he shall know."
But you say you're going to take a Bible course. If you are holding out on God, refusing to follow Jesus, you can take a course and learn all about synthesis and analysis and all the rest. But you might just as well read Pogo; all the courses in the world won't illuminate you inside. You can fill your head full of knowledge, but the day that you decide you are going to obey God it will get down into your heart. You shall know. Only the servants of truth can ever know truth. Only those who obey can ever have the inward change.
You can stand on the outside and can know all about it. I once read a book about the inner spiritual life by a man who was not a Christian at all. He had an amazing penetration. He was a sharp intellectual, a keen Englishman. He stood outside and examined spiritual people from the outside but nothing ever reached him.
You can read your Bible -- read any version you want -- and if you are honest you will admit that it is either obedience or inward blindness. You can repeat the Book of Romans word for word and still be blind inwardly. You can quote the whole Book of Psalms and still be blind inwardly. You can know the doctrine of justification by faith and take your stand with Luther and the Reformation, and be blind inwardly. For it is not the body of truth that enlightens; it is the Spirit of truth that enlightens.
If you are willing to obey the Lord Jesus He will illuminate your spirit, inwardly enlighten you, and the truth you have known will now be known spiritually and power will begin to flow up and out and you will find yourself changed, marvellously changed. In that great day of Christ's coming all that will matter is whether or not I have been inwardly illuminated. Inwardly regenerated. Inwardly purified.
Do I know Jesus?
January - February, 1970 Vol. 48, No. 1
REVELATION IS NOT ENOUGH
[A. W. Tozer]
The following message by the late Dr. A. W. Tozer, to be included in a further volume of addresses by him now in preparation, is, we feel, so much in keeping with the ministry of A Witness and A Testimony, that we borrow it for our readers, assured that they will be very glad to read it. It was recently in The Alliance Witness of the Christian and Missionary Alliance. And while mentioning this, may I say that, in early years of ministry and the Lord's work, I owed very much to the life of Dr. A. B. Simpson, founder of that 'Alliance'. - Editor.
"About the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught. And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself" (John 7:14-17).
---------------- Begin Article -------------------
THE key, the crux of this whole issue, is in verse 17. If any man is willing to do God's will, he shall know.
People marvelled at our Lord as He taught. They asked: "How knoweth this man letters having never learned?" 'How does He know learning', in other words, 'never having studied in the regular schools?' In those days they had no schools as we know them; a rabbi taught little groups of students. Our Lord evidently never attended a rabbinical school so they asked: 'How does He get His wonderful doctrine, since He has never been to the schools of the rabbis?'
Now, this question tells us a good deal about these people. It tells us that they held truth to be intellectual merely, capable of being reduced to a code. To know truth it was necessary only to learn the code.
Most of them had no books of their own -- they learned by memorizing. That was their conception of truth. I gather this not only from verse 17 but from the whole Gospel of John. To these people truth was an intellectual thing -- just as we know that two times two is four.
That is truth, but it is an intellectual truth only. They reduced divine truth to that status. They knew the laws: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me.... Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.... Thou shalt not ...". But to them there was no mysterious depth in truth, nothing beneath and nothing beyond the obvious fact. It was exactly here that they parted company with our Saviour, for our Lord Jesus constantly taught the beyond and the beneath.
These people believed that the words of truth were the truth. And here is a basic misunderstanding of Christian theology with a moral and spiritual consequence that is vastly important. They believed that if you had the words of truth, if you could repeat the code of truth, you had the truth. That if you lived by the word of truth you lived in the truth.
The Saviour tried to correct this inadequate view. He showed them the heavenly quality of His message. He said: 'My doctrine is not Mine -- I am [18/19] not a rabbi teaching doctrine that you can memorize and repeat. What I am giving you is not that kind of doctrine at all.'
He had said previously: 'I say nothing for Myself -- what I see the Father do, that I do, and what the Father speaks, that I speak. What I have seen yonder I tell you about. I am a transparent medium through which the truth is being spoken. You believe that the way to truth is to go to a rabbi and learn it. That's not the truth, that approach to truth is inadequate.'
Here, it seems to me, is the weakness in modern Christianity. The battle line, the warfare today, is not necessarily between the fundamentalist and the liberal. There is a difference between them, of course. The fundamentalist says God made the heaven and the earth. The liberal says: 'Well, that's a poetic way of stating it; actually it came up by evolution.' The fundamentalist says Jesus Christ was the very Son of God. The liberal says: 'Well, He certainly was a wonderful man and He is the Master, but I don't quite know about His deity.' So there is a division, but I don't think the warfare is on these matters any more.
The battle has shifted to another more important field. The warfare, the dividing line today, is between evangelical rationalists and evangelical mystics. I will explain what I mean.
There is today an evangelical rationalism which is the same as these Jews had. They said the truth is in the word, and if you want to know truth, go to the rabbi and learn the word. If you get the word, you have got the truth. That is evangelical rationalism and we have that today in fundamental circles. 'If you learn the text you've got the truth.'
This evangelical rationalism will kill the truth just as quickly as liberalism will, though in more subtle way. The liberal stands over there and says: 'I don't believe your inspired Bible; I don't believe your deified Christ. I believe the Bibles in a way; it is the record of the high points of great men and I believe in a certain mystic communion with the universe and it is all very wonderful, but I don't believe as you do.'
You can easily spot this man -- train your glasses on him and there he stands. You can tell he is on the other side, for he wears the uniform of the other side.
But your evangelical rationalist wears our uniform. He comes in wearing our uniform and says what the Pharisees, the worst enemies Jesus had while He was on earth, said: 'Well, truth is truth, and if you believe the truth you've got it.
Such see no beyond and no mystic depth, no mysterious heights, nothing supernatural or divine. They see only: "I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth: and in Jesus Christ His only Son, our Lord." They have the text and the code and the creed, and to them that is the truth. So they pass it on to others. The result is we are dying spiritually.
Now, what about the evangelical mystic? I don't really like the word 'mystic' because you think of a fellow with long hair and a little goatee who acts dreamy and strange. Maybe it is not a good word at all, but I am talking about the spiritual side of things -- that the truth is more than the text. There is something that you've got to get through to. The truth is more than the code. There is a heart beating in the middle of the code and you've got to get there.
Now the question is simply this: Is the body of Christian truth enough? Or does truth have a soul as well as a body? The evangelical rationalist says that all of that talk about the soul of truth is poetic nonsense. The body of truth is all you need; if you believe the body of truth you are on your way to heaven and you can't backslide and everything will be allright and you will get a crown in the last day.
Now otherwise stated: Is revelation enough or must there be illumination? Is this Bible an inspired book? Is it a revealed book? Of course you and I believe that it is a revelation, that God spoke all these words and holy men spoke as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
I believe that this Bible is a living book, that God has given it to us and that we dare not add to it or take away from it. It is revelation. But revelation is not enough. There must be illumination before revelation can get to your soul. It isn't enough that I hold an inspired book in my hands. I must have an inspired heart. There is the difference.
You can memorize all the texts of the Bible -- and I believe in memorizing -- but when you are through you've got nothing but the body. There is the soul of truth as well as the body. There is a divine inward illumination the Holy Ghost must give us or we don't know what truth means.
Conversion is a miraculous act of God by the Holy Ghost; it must be wrought in the spirit. The body of truth is not enough; there must be an inward illumination.
Christ's conflict was with the theological rationalist. It revealed itself in the Sermon on the Mount and the whole Book of John. Just as Colossians argues against Manichaeism and Galatians argues against Jewish legalism, so the Book of John is a long, inspired, passionately outpoured book trying to save us from evangelical rationalism, the doctrine [19/20] that says the text is enough. Textualism is as deadly as liberalism.
Now revelation, I repeat, can't save. Revelation is the ground upon which we stand. Revelation tells us what to believe. It is the Book of God and I stand for it with all my heart; but there must be, before I can be saved, illumination, penitence, renewal, inward deliverance.
I have no doubt that many people are eased into the kingdom. They are jockeyed into believing in the text, and they do; but they have never been illuminated by the Holy Ghost. They have never been renewed in their hearts. They never get into the kingdom at all.
Now, there is a secret in divine truth altogether hidden from the unprepared soul. This is where we stand in the terrible day in which we live. Christianity is not something you just reach up and grab. There must be a preparation of the mind, a preparation of the life and a preparation of the inner man before we can savingly believe in Jesus Christ.
Somebody asks: Is it possible to hear the truth and not understand the truth? Listen to Isaiah: "Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive not" (6:9). It is possible to see yet not perceive.
Paul says (1 Corinthians 2:4-5): "My speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God."
Now the theological rationalists say that your faith should stand not in the wisdom of man but in the Word of God. Paul didn't say that at all. He said your faith should stand in the power of God. That's quite a different thing.
Verses 9 through 14 say: "Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.... But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
Paul, the man of God, is saying: I came preaching and I preached with power that would illuminate and get to the conscience and to the spirit and change the inner man in order that your faith might stand in the power of God.
My brethren, your faith can stand in the text and you can be as dead as the proverbial doornail, but when the power of God moves in on the text and sets the sacrifice on fire, then you have Christianity. We call that revival, but it's not revival at all. It is simply New Testament Christianity. It's what it ought to have been in the first place, but was not.
Now look at Matthew 11: "Jesus answered and said, I thank thee O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father, neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him."
So there we have the doctrine taught plainly that there is not only a body of truth which we must hold at our peril; there is also a soul in that body which we must get through to, and if we don't get through to the soul of truth we have only a dead body on our hands.
A church can go on holding the creed. and the truth for years and generations and grow old and die, and new people come up and receive that same code and they grow old and die.
Then some revivalist comes in and gets everybody stirred and prayer moves God down on the scene and revival comes to that church. People who thought they were saved get saved. People who have only believed in a code now believe in Christ.
A man will go along in a church and believe texts and quote them and memorize them and teach them and maybe become a deacon and all the rest. Then one day, under the fiery preaching of some visitor or maybe the pastor, he suddenly feels himself terribly in need of God and he forgets all his past history and goes to his knees and like David begins to pour out his soul in confession. Then he leaps to his feet and testifies: 'I've been a deacon in this church twenty-six years and never was born again until tonight.'
What happened? That man had been trusting the dead body of truth until some inspired preacher let him know that truth has a soul. Or maybe God taught him in secret that truth had a soul as well as a body and he dared to get through and pursue by penitence and obedience until God honoured his faith and flashed the light on. And like lightning out of heaven it touched his spirit and all the texts he had memorized became alive.
Thank God, he did memorize the texts and all the truth he knew suddenly now bloomed in the light. That is why I believe we ought to memorize. [20/21] That is why we ought to get to know the Word, why we ought to fill our minds with the songs and the great hymns of the church. They won't mean anything to us until the Holy Ghost comes. But when He comes He will have fuel to use. Fire without fuel won't burn but fuel without fire is dead. And the Holy Ghost will not come on a church where there is no Biblical fuel. There must be Bible teaching. We must have the body of truth.
Jesus said if any man is willing to do God's will, he shall know -- he shall know the doctrine, he shall know the teaching. Now, this body of truth can be grasped by the average, normal intellect. You can grasp truth, but only the enlightened soul will ever know the truth and only the prepared heart will ever be enlightened.
And just what is the preparation needed? Jesus said: 'If any man is willing to do My will the light will flash in on him. If any man will obey Me, God will enlighten his soul immediately.'
We make Jesus Christ a convenience. We make Him a lifeboat to get us to shore, a guide to find us when we are lost. We reduce Him simply to Big Friend to help us when we are in trouble.
That is not Christianity. Jesus Christ is Lord. But when a man is willing to do His will, he is repenting and the truth flashes in.
No man can know the Son except the Father tell him. No man can know the Father except the Son reveal Him. I can know about God, that's the body of truth. But I can't know God, the soul of truth, unless I am ready to be obedient.
Before the Word of God can mean anything inside of me there must be obedience to the Word. Truth will not give itself to a rebel. Truth will not impart life to a man who will not obey the light! "If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin." If you are disobeying Jesus Christ you can't expect to be enlightened.
But there is illumination. I know what Charles Wesley meant when he wrote: "His spirit answers to the blood, And tells me I am born of God!" Nobody had to come and tell me what he meant. 'He that is willing to do My will,' said Jesus, 'shall have a revelation to his own heart. He shall have an inward illumination that tells him he is a child of God.'
If a sinner goes to the altar and a worker with a marked New Testament argues him into the kingdom, the devil will meet him two blocks down the street and argue him out of it again. But if he has an inward illumination and he has that witness within because the Spirit answers to the blood, you can't argue with that man. He will say: 'But I know.' A man like that is not bigoted or arrogant, he is just sure.
Now that's revival, but yet it is not revival either; it is normal Christianity. It's the way we should be. "If any man will do his will, he shall know."
But you say you're going to take a Bible course. If you are holding out on God, refusing to follow Jesus, you can take a course and learn all about synthesis and analysis and all the rest. But you might just as well read Pogo; all the courses in the world won't illuminate you inside. You can fill your head full of knowledge, but the day that you decide you are going to obey God it will get down into your heart. You shall know. Only the servants of truth can ever know truth. Only those who obey can ever have the inward change.
You can stand on the outside and can know all about it. I once read a book about the inner spiritual life by a man who was not a Christian at all. He had an amazing penetration. He was a sharp intellectual, a keen Englishman. He stood outside and examined spiritual people from the outside but nothing ever reached him.
You can read your Bible -- read any version you want -- and if you are honest you will admit that it is either obedience or inward blindness. You can repeat the Book of Romans word for word and still be blind inwardly. You can quote the whole Book of Psalms and still be blind inwardly. You can know the doctrine of justification by faith and take your stand with Luther and the Reformation, and be blind inwardly. For it is not the body of truth that enlightens; it is the Spirit of truth that enlightens.
If you are willing to obey the Lord Jesus He will illuminate your spirit, inwardly enlighten you, and the truth you have known will now be known spiritually and power will begin to flow up and out and you will find yourself changed, marvellously changed. In that great day of Christ's coming all that will matter is whether or not I have been inwardly illuminated. Inwardly regenerated. Inwardly purified.
Do I know Jesus?
Friday, August 28, 2009
Don't underestimate the battle we must go through on a daily basis to ensure our fellowship with Jesus Christ.
Because Jesus stated there is nothing that matters more than that, and even said to Martha when confronting Jesus about Mary not helping her, that Mary chose the one thing only matters, and He wasn't going to take that away from her.
But the battle we face every day is in not only continuing to believe what Jesus said, but to continue living it in the midst of endless pressures, interruptions and needs.
Jesus also said in Matthew 6:25: "Take no thought for your life." If we are to take no thought for our lives, how much thought for our lives does that leave us? That's right - zero.
Let's not get flaky with what Jesus said, He didn't mean we don't focus on what we need to do in the moment, he's talking, again, how people worry and so choke off the value and fruit of what fellowship with Jesus Christ brings about in us; assuming we maintain our focus on Him and not on the outward circumstances around us.
Usually distractions come from pressures from needs; things like paying bills, money, food, clothing, and a host of other things that fight to be kept in our thoughts and vision.
Deceitfulness of riches, cares of this world; Jesus says to be anxious for nothing. I believe Him, and so should all of us. The reason is there will always be some type of need or circumstance we're worried about at any one time if we allow ourselves to look at it.
That's why Jesus said "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." In other words, there's enough to take care of in the day you face, don't add to it by looking ahead to the future which is in God's hands.
Think of all these things like a dessert always trying to slowly expand and claim fertile land, making land basically useless for anything.
This is what happens when we take thought of the future which isn't even here yet, and takes us away from the simplicity of devotion to Christ, which was what the original temptation was all about.
Jesus said that worry changes nothing, and so when we look toward the future in the sense of things that will, could, or might happen, there is absolutely nothing we can do to change it. And if we attempt to, usually we'll make matters worse, and still be taken off of our fellowship with Christ.
One temptation to watch in all of this, especially when we attempt to apply reasoning, common sense and logic to this, is to start to think Jesus can't relate to us in this way. The truth is we're taught that Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, and yet He said He only did what He saw the Father doing or would only speak what the Father was speaking. That means He refused to allow what was unknown ahead distract Him from that which only mattered.
Even more, He knew He had come into the world to offer Himself as a sacrifice for our sins in order to bring us back into relationship with the Godhead, yet He didn't sit there dwelling on that inevitable reality until the time when He needed to, and the Father told Him to.
Don't let the desert of worries and concerns move you off of the very purpose Jesus created us: to be in constant fellowship with Him through faith in Him. Anything else truly doesn't matter.
Because Jesus stated there is nothing that matters more than that, and even said to Martha when confronting Jesus about Mary not helping her, that Mary chose the one thing only matters, and He wasn't going to take that away from her.
But the battle we face every day is in not only continuing to believe what Jesus said, but to continue living it in the midst of endless pressures, interruptions and needs.
Jesus also said in Matthew 6:25: "Take no thought for your life." If we are to take no thought for our lives, how much thought for our lives does that leave us? That's right - zero.
Let's not get flaky with what Jesus said, He didn't mean we don't focus on what we need to do in the moment, he's talking, again, how people worry and so choke off the value and fruit of what fellowship with Jesus Christ brings about in us; assuming we maintain our focus on Him and not on the outward circumstances around us.
Usually distractions come from pressures from needs; things like paying bills, money, food, clothing, and a host of other things that fight to be kept in our thoughts and vision.
Deceitfulness of riches, cares of this world; Jesus says to be anxious for nothing. I believe Him, and so should all of us. The reason is there will always be some type of need or circumstance we're worried about at any one time if we allow ourselves to look at it.
That's why Jesus said "Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof." In other words, there's enough to take care of in the day you face, don't add to it by looking ahead to the future which is in God's hands.
Think of all these things like a dessert always trying to slowly expand and claim fertile land, making land basically useless for anything.
This is what happens when we take thought of the future which isn't even here yet, and takes us away from the simplicity of devotion to Christ, which was what the original temptation was all about.
Jesus said that worry changes nothing, and so when we look toward the future in the sense of things that will, could, or might happen, there is absolutely nothing we can do to change it. And if we attempt to, usually we'll make matters worse, and still be taken off of our fellowship with Christ.
One temptation to watch in all of this, especially when we attempt to apply reasoning, common sense and logic to this, is to start to think Jesus can't relate to us in this way. The truth is we're taught that Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, and yet He said He only did what He saw the Father doing or would only speak what the Father was speaking. That means He refused to allow what was unknown ahead distract Him from that which only mattered.
Even more, He knew He had come into the world to offer Himself as a sacrifice for our sins in order to bring us back into relationship with the Godhead, yet He didn't sit there dwelling on that inevitable reality until the time when He needed to, and the Father told Him to.
Don't let the desert of worries and concerns move you off of the very purpose Jesus created us: to be in constant fellowship with Him through faith in Him. Anything else truly doesn't matter.
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Every wind of doctrine
The idea of running after every wind of doctrine is a sympton of not growing up in the Lord, and of the lack of foundational planting in our lives.
Every wind of doctrine must be understood as not just strange or weird teachings about Christ, but also many of the obsessive meanderings the world always pursues and partakes in; most of the time expressed in the endless number of causes always brought up as vital to the continued existence of the human race, or other such drivel.
You know, things like the global warming or climate change hoax, saving the whales, or the evil of capitalism, etc.; none of which the eternal purpose of God has anything to do with.
Anyway, the reason I included this video is to show the principle behind living quiet and peaceable lives and not looking to be someone in this world.
I like the fact that this young man anonymously played this song, which as of this writing has enjoyed being viewed over 61,000,000 times on YouTube.
You don't get the feeling when watchin him play that he's doing it for the purpose of showing off or trying to garner attention, rather he's simply expressing something of what he has and sharing it with the rest of us.
He was so anonymous that the New York Times attempted to find him at one time, and it took their people and resources 8 months to do it. This young man didn't do this for the purpose of being found or discovered.
The point is we in our lives in the Lord also must come to the place of simply living from and unto Jesus Christ. There is no other purpose we were made for, and anything that distracts from that should be considered something that must be dealt with.
Don't be deceived by the endless do-gooders that claim the thing they're promoting is a must if we want to survive, or needs to be done or millions will perish.
Many times, if not most the time in history, those attempting to do good end up doing more harm because of their intervention, having no idea about cause and effect, and destroy in some cases, millions of lives.
What we must embrace and understand is that Jesus Christ isn't moved by need, and He wants our undivided and devoted attention as we walk daily in the everyday aspects of our lives in Him.
For the most part Christ isn't interested in our becoming known in this world, rather He's interested in us responding to Him in the little things of life, and considering them as vitally important to Him, whether anyone else in the world is aware of it or not.
That's why I brought up this young man in the video. He's touched millions of lives with his music without attempting to be known or without a known purpose other than sharing it with those watching it.
Whether anyone sees us or not in our fellowship with Christ and the little things we daily do unto Him doesn't matter, we just continue on faithfully serving and living from and unto Him regardless.
We're simply called to be ordinary people fellowshipping with an extraordinary Jesus Christ.
Every wind of doctrine
The idea of running after every wind of doctrine is a sympton of not growing up in the Lord, and of the lack of foundational planting in our lives.
Every wind of doctrine must be understood as not just strange or weird teachings about Christ, but also many of the obsessive meanderings the world always pursues and partakes in; most of the time expressed in the endless number of causes always brought up as vital to the continued existence of the human race, or other such drivel.
You know, things like the global warming or climate change hoax, saving the whales, or the evil of capitalism, etc.; none of which the eternal purpose of God has anything to do with.
Anyway, the reason I included this video is to show the principle behind living quiet and peaceable lives and not looking to be someone in this world.
I like the fact that this young man anonymously played this song, which as of this writing has enjoyed being viewed over 61,000,000 times on YouTube.
You don't get the feeling when watchin him play that he's doing it for the purpose of showing off or trying to garner attention, rather he's simply expressing something of what he has and sharing it with the rest of us.
He was so anonymous that the New York Times attempted to find him at one time, and it took their people and resources 8 months to do it. This young man didn't do this for the purpose of being found or discovered.
The point is we in our lives in the Lord also must come to the place of simply living from and unto Jesus Christ. There is no other purpose we were made for, and anything that distracts from that should be considered something that must be dealt with.
Don't be deceived by the endless do-gooders that claim the thing they're promoting is a must if we want to survive, or needs to be done or millions will perish.
Many times, if not most the time in history, those attempting to do good end up doing more harm because of their intervention, having no idea about cause and effect, and destroy in some cases, millions of lives.
What we must embrace and understand is that Jesus Christ isn't moved by need, and He wants our undivided and devoted attention as we walk daily in the everyday aspects of our lives in Him.
For the most part Christ isn't interested in our becoming known in this world, rather He's interested in us responding to Him in the little things of life, and considering them as vitally important to Him, whether anyone else in the world is aware of it or not.
That's why I brought up this young man in the video. He's touched millions of lives with his music without attempting to be known or without a known purpose other than sharing it with those watching it.
Whether anyone sees us or not in our fellowship with Christ and the little things we daily do unto Him doesn't matter, we just continue on faithfully serving and living from and unto Him regardless.
We're simply called to be ordinary people fellowshipping with an extraordinary Jesus Christ.
Every wind of doctrine
Sunday, June 14, 2009
New Jerusalem
For many Christians buying into the myriad causes and schemes to save "mother earth" through environmental activism, it's past time to throw that mostly nonsense away and find you who your real mother is. It isn't earth, it's New Jerusalem, which is coming down out of heaven.
Environmental activism is one of the biggest swindles since Darwinism, and far too many Christians are entering into it in belief they're saving mother earth, which as I said for Christians, isn't our mother.
As a matter of fact, if Christians were to do a little research and studying past the hype and tenets behind much of environmentalism, they'd find out a lot of it is not only based and sourced in paganism, but a lot of it is based on lies and innuendo, rather than facts and reality.
Global warming is one of those, as the earth has been cooling for over a decade, thousands of scientists say the computer models it's based on are faulty, and many of the areas it's being measured in are close to local areas like plants that are warmer than the real air around it.
I could go on with this, but I don't want to get off the real purpose for writing this article, and that is to remind believers in Christ that New Jerusalem is our mother and not the earth.
We are born again from above by the Spirit, and when that truly happens in someone, we are no longer part of this world, in the sense that we don't live by its premises and ways of life, which are always against the image and reality of Christ Himself.
Jesus said of His disciples near the end of His time on earth that just like He wasn't of this world, neither were they, and by extension, neither should we be.
Paul said again in one of His letters to Timothy that a good soldier of Christ doesn't get involved with the affairs of this world.
The New King James Version says, "No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier."
In Colossians 3:1-3 Paul said, "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
How much plainer can it be than that? Paul says "if." If you've been raised with Christ (which you have been if you're really a believer in Christ), then you are to seek those things which are above, not things on this earth. Any questions? There shouldn't be.
This is part of what Jesus meant when the disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray, and part of Jesus' response was for the Father's kingdom to come and His will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven.
When we see New Jerusalem -our true mother - coming out of heaven, that's part of what that is referring to; not some silly idea of a physical entity dropping out of outer space, like some people have implied.
What is New Jerusalem? It is God in His people. That's our mother: Christ in us. (But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all Gal 4:26.)
When we read about New Jerusalem and listen to the language describing it, we can get so caught up into its grandeur, that we miss the simple and easy understanding of what's inside of it.
So what is inside New Jerusalem that makes it our mother? There's a throne, a street, a river and a tree, and an exit out where all the evil lies. Jesus said, "Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city. 15 But outside are dogs and sorcerers and sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and whoever loves and practices a lie."
We must understand that when Jesus came to earth, He was New Jerusalem come down out of heaven, it was just that He was all of it in Himself, which wasn't His purpose, as He was meant to inhabit and fill a people with and unto Himself, which results in the fulfillment of His eternal purpose, which is to be all in all.
This is why when John is taken to the city he first sees the patriarchs and the twelve apostles before entering the city. That's significant. Not because man is first, but because the new man holds that which John was about to be revealed: Christ Himself in His people; the very purpose for creation.
There are a lot of things mentioned about the outer part of the bride of the Lamb, but it's because of what's inside that makes the outer what it is.
So what does it mean to have New Jerusalem as our mother? It means the spirit of God has now come down from heaven and inhabits His people. He's brought His throne, a river, a tree, fruit, light, a lamb, God and a street of gold with Him. Those things are what make up what births us in Christ. That's what begins to work in us when we are born from above, or born again.
Another significant factor in John seeing this is there is a oneness there between Christ and the people He's indwelling. She has been "prepared as a bride adorned for her husband."
What is New Jerusalem adorned with? The very nature of Christ which we partake in. When the description of the outward things of the bride are revealed, it's saying what is being seen without is the result of that which has been birthed within. This is something that has come down out of heaven from the only and one true God and planted within His people. That's what's supposed to happen when a person is born again. The very life or sperma of God is planted within him as a seed, and it grows throughout his lifetime as an open heart before God is retained.
The two now have become one, as the inner and outer are without contradiction, like the life of the Father and Jesus when He lived on the earth as the son of man living only by the life of the Father in Him.
This is what we are called to in this world, as New Jerusalem, our mother who is free, comes down out of heaven to dwell within His people. New Jerusalem is Christ in us.
We need to quit focusing on a false mother and live by our mother who is free, coming down now from heaven.
New Jerusalem
Sunday, May 3, 2009
Never has there been more clutter in our lives than there is today. The enormous amount of information and in-your-face communication is so invasive, its come to the point where it can have a negative effect on our walk with Jesus Christ and knowing Him.
If we really want a chance of having a significant relationship and fellowship with Christ, we need to take steps to counter the waves of information being thrown at us.
One thing that believers that have had a close walk with Christ through the centuries have all had in common, is learning to tune out the world and look to the Lord within them.
In our modern age, there's nothing more important than simply cutting off the source of the information and communication overload.
When I say cut it off, I don't mean permanently, otherwise we'd have to be out of the world. I mean we need to simply turn off all the gadgets we use to receive information, and sit quietly before the Lord and fellowship with Him.
That includes your telephones, television, Internet, newspaper, etc.
In other words, don't give in to the temptation to grab print or digital gadgets, computers or newspapers. As soon as you do, they're made to grab your attention and draw you in.
In no time at all you're distracted so quickly that hopes of securing quality time with the Lord becomes hopeless.
Rather, what we should do is close ourselves off from it periodically, and better at set times, and simply fellowship with the Lord without distraction.
If you're too busy to do that, then maybe you need to think of lifestyle changes.
This is what Jesus was talking about when He talked about the parable of the seed and the sower. If you've got all the distractions of life combating you, it's impossible for the fruit of fellowship with Him to come forth. It's always full of mixture, which has no value before the Lord.
Once you practice quieting yourself before the Lord, from there the practice can become more consistent, and you can learn to do it in the midst of the hussle and bussle of life. That takes time and practice though, and you've got to start somewhere, which is why quiet time is so important.
So how does one enter into the presence of the Lord? It's simply and immediately by faith. We don't need to feel Him or sense Him, rather we know He lives within us, and that He defines eternal life as fellowship with Him and the Father.
In other words, the desire and will is there on Jesus' part to fellowship intimately with us, so it falls on us to allow the clutter to fall away and simply enjoy the presence of God within us by faith.
That's the key. Exterior clutter is an enemy of our walk with Jesus, so it's our job to ensure we don't get distracted by all the outward things that always pressure upon us.
The truth is those outward things and problems will always be there. Get rid of one and another will surface. That's the way of life in this world. We'll always have troubles here.
So we must learn to continue to fellowship with the Lord, individually and corporately, while those storms of life are always beating down upon us.
If we don't, the desire of the heart of God to be in a love relationship with us will be frustrated, and we'll be a people most miserable.
By the way, this isn't just in relationship to difficult things in life either. Be wary of those people always chasing causes and not Christ.
That's just the 'good' side of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You can get easily led away from the simplicity of Christ in the name of good; sometimes even more so.
Jesus is interested in life and not good. Jesus defines eternal life as fellowship with Him and the Father. It's as simple as that.
The fact that He defines eternal life that way, means it was something in the Godhead that was before time and creation. It was what was of value to God, and what motivated Him to create us.
This doesn't mean we don't do good, just that we don't obsess with the knowledge of good as pushed upon us from without by the world. All you have to do is read the hideous amount of alleged crises out there, and you could become borderline psychotic in despair because it looks like the world is about to fall apart at any time.
Don't worry though, Jesus is still Lord, and has everything under control. Be cautious of those that use time as a weapon to move you off your position of fellowship with Christ.
Time is a tool of manipulation used to get us to give our time and money to something, that if we didn't, the world would surely end.
We see this all the time with those who attempt to use politics as a tool to get what they want, and to enforce their will on the rest of us.
Anyway, be careful of anything that draws you away from the simplicity of Christ, as Paul warns us in the Scriptures.
One of the greatest practices to ensure that is to take quiet time with the Lord, shutting out all outside influences, and from there learn to do it on a daily, and eventually moment by moment basis.
Just ask Jesus to give you the will and wisdom in it, and He surely will answer you.
Monday, January 26, 2009
The Father's focus from before time, during time, and after time, is Jesus Christ. He has been the purpose of the Father all along.
What does this mean? The Father has poured everything He is into Christ. All that the Father ever had to say has been said in Christ. All He's ever wanted to do has already been done in Christ.
So what does that have to do with the people of God? To be a believer is to have Christ within us. So everything Christ is from the Father, is now living within us.
That's what it means when we are told He is working toward being all in all. He's accomplished that with the cooperation of Jesus Christ, now He's working on extending that into His people.
We've heard that Jesus is the pattern Son, and He is all that, but it's not referring to some outward systematic pattern, but an organic pattern coming forth from who the Father is in Christ.
Let's look for a moment at what it means for God to be all in all as the end passion of the Father's eternal purpose.
We know that God is everywhere, as He fills the created universe and heaven as well. But that's a very general presence, and doesn't have much meaning to His purpose. That's just part of the fact that nothing can contain God ... or so it seems.
But, when God indwells His people, His filling isn't like the way His general presence in the created realms is. His presence there is full of purpose, and that is that everything will gravitate toward and change into the image of His son, whom He's already accomplished His filling in.
What we're talking about here is transformation; a process throughout our lifetimes on the earth where He brings us through many crosses, pressures and situations where He is able to weaken our self-life in order that His life can be worked into us in a way that changes us into His image.
He wants to more than weaken our self life, He wants to obliterate it. But because it'a a process, that takes time. For Christ to be Lord, it means we are to set aside our wishes and desires and let Him fill us with His.
We can do nothing pleasing unto God if we're not doing things from Him. To do things from Him, we must be willing to lose our self-centeredness and become Christ-centered.
We can't be concerned with whether others are doing this, we must be accountable to Christ; it's our responsibility in that.
So the eternal purpose of God is completely worked within Christ, coming from the life of the Father Himself. Now Christ, through the Holy Spirit is doing the same thing, filling us with His life in order to have us be bearers of His image. This is why we're supposed to be lights to this world, as we are to live from the one true light: Jesus Christ.
This can only happen in those who are willing to come to Christ and say there are no holds barred (We give Him permission to do what is needed to be done to accomplish His purpose). In reality, if we have the right start to our lives in Christ, this is in essence what we're saying to Him.
The problem is once He starts working in our lives, we draw back and look more toward outward things because the inner way of Christ isn't an easy one, as our terrible selfishness and self-life comes forth when He works in us, and many fall by the wayside because of what they see.
Consequently they misinterpret what it is Christ is trying to do. They think He's beating them over the head with a big stick, rather than Christ drawing them more toward the center of His light where everything is exposed.
Understand that. God isn't trying to embarrass, humiliate or mock you, He's simply taking His rightful place on the throne of your spirit and soul, and to do that He must eliminate within you that which stands in His way. It's just that at times it's not a pretty process, and you can come to the place where you want to quit. Don't! You're getting close to what He's working on in your life when those times come, so don't give up when you reach the depths of despair. He's got you right where He wants you!
Just surrender to Him over and over again and trust His love for you. You won't make it if you don't. Everything comes from the hand of God, as He allows it all, being completely in control. Just ask the simple question of what He is doing in your life, not so you can understand in the early stages, but so you can cooperate with Him and not fight against the grace of God working in you. Understanding comes later when the process is over, so you can help others that will go through similar things.
Anyhow, that's a small sketch of what it is God had in His heart from before time and creation. He is one who wants to fill all things with Himself, so who He is is seen throughout all the created realms throughout eternity. That's what we're called to. That is to be our purpose as well.
Let me give you one more illustration to help you see this.
What if 10,000 years from now we were still here in the universe, and man started colonizing the planets?
Let's say 100 people are sent as the seed of a new planet to colonize, but none of them are believers. Would the presence of God be on that planet? Would it be part of the eternal purpose of God?
No. The eternal purpose of God through His presence can only happen when a people internalize Him in an intimate fellowship that results in them being changed into His image through a lifetime of transformation.
So while the general presence of God is already everywhere in the created physical universe, the kingdom and will of God isn't, which is what it is He is working toward in a people.
If the kingdom and will of God isn't in a people, then it isn't part of wherever man is, not matter how many bodies are present in a specific place.
That kingom and will of God are only present where His image bearers are. Where they are, there He is. If they aren't, His presence as dictated by His eternal purpose doesn't exist.
Meditate on that as it applies to His people and His church. Think of it in terms of "Christ in you, the hope of glory." He's talking very specific, not general as mentioned above.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Zombie Christians! Zombie Churches!
I want to mention briefly what happens when Christ within us isn't the focus of our lives.
What one of the great tragedies of Christian history has been, is the creating of structures to endure, regardless of whether the life of Christ is active within His people. This is the purpose of these structures: to endure no matter what happens.
An amazing part of this tragedy is the effect it produces. Now you have something claiming to represent Christ which is in fact dead. The horror is that even though it has no life, it walks and talks as if it does. That's what I call zombie churches and Christians.
A number of people even think this is a good development; existing and going on whether the life of Christ is there or not. This is the evil of organization and institutionalism as it relates to the people of God.
To this day the confusion and effect springing out of this zombie existence is a heavy taint on the person of Christ.
This is why whenever we look to see Christ glorified on the earth, it never lasts and eventually people turn it into an organization or stop pursuing Him altogether.
To be "organic" as the people of God, is not a testimony to a certain methodology, but to the fact that there is a current and ongoing, intimate fellowship with Christ within in a corporate manner. Anything else will simply be a horrid zombie; either individually or corporately, that names the name of Christ, but has long been out of intimate fellowship with Him.
By this I'm not saying that any type of denominational or setting in a building is good if the life of Christ is there, what I'm saying is we can throw all that away and still not have anything. We can meet in homes, live in neighborhoods together and enjoy a lot of freedom. But if that isn't coming forth from Christ within, it has no meaning other than changing a physical location or hanging out together.
Being truly organic means nothing less than sharing the fellowship of the Godhead together: both individually and corporately. Anything less is simply doing things as the "walking dead."
In the end, everything in Christ must be experiential. Anything less than that is going through motions that are completely devoid of life, and living off of something that you once or never had.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
a
I want to mention briefly what happens when Christ within us isn't the focus of our lives.
What one of the great tragedies of Christian history has been, is the creating of structures to endure, regardless of whether the life of Christ is active within His people. This is the purpose of these structures: to endure no matter what happens.
An amazing part of this tragedy is the effect it produces. Now you have something claiming to represent Christ which is in fact dead. The horror is that even though it has no life, it walks and talks as if it does. That's what I call zombie churches and Christians.
A number of people even think this is a good development; existing and going on whether the life of Christ is there or not. This is the evil of organization and institutionalism as it relates to the people of God.
To this day the confusion and effect springing out of this zombie existence is a heavy taint on the person of Christ.
This is why whenever we look to see Christ glorified on the earth, it never lasts and eventually people turn it into an organization or stop pursuing Him altogether.
To be "organic" as the people of God, is not a testimony to a certain methodology, but to the fact that there is a current and ongoing, intimate fellowship with Christ within in a corporate manner. Anything else will simply be a horrid zombie; either individually or corporately, that names the name of Christ, but has long been out of intimate fellowship with Him.
By this I'm not saying that any type of denominational or setting in a building is good if the life of Christ is there, what I'm saying is we can throw all that away and still not have anything. We can meet in homes, live in neighborhoods together and enjoy a lot of freedom. But if that isn't coming forth from Christ within, it has no meaning other than changing a physical location or hanging out together.
Being truly organic means nothing less than sharing the fellowship of the Godhead together: both individually and corporately. Anything less is simply doing things as the "walking dead."
In the end, everything in Christ must be experiential. Anything less than that is going through motions that are completely devoid of life, and living off of something that you once or never had.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
a
A lot of people ask the rhetorical question of what would have happened if Adam and Eve hadn't eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Most the time they're thinking of some type of environmental "eden," which is the wrong place to focus, and largely irrelevant.
What's more important is what was to happen when they ate of the tree of life, which was Jesus.
The Lord is actually very clear on what was supposed to happen. When they ate of the tree of life, they would have reproduced as commanded by the Lord, and from there spread across the earth, filling it with the glory and presence of God in them.
When their children started arriving, they probably would have been born righteous, in the same way we're born into sin today: we're the wrong "mankind" at birth in the eyes of God. Those children would have been born as the "new" man, just as true believers are today.
We have to understand that eating of the tree of Life was simply another way of saying Christ was to be in us; we were to internalize Him in an intimate fellowship.
So when Jesus came to earth and said they must eat His flesh and drink His blood, in reality He was offering Himself as the tree of Life again. Again, He was widely rejected by Israel, and even His closest followers, other than the 12 apostles.
Everything in what is called Christianity today depends upon the practical and very real outworking of that fellowship Christ has offered us.
Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
a
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